Earle hits DeLay with more subpoenas (w/poll)

Juanita says Tom is having a bad day.

Okay, after Tom DeLay told Chris Matthews last night that his golf outing in Scotland was paid for by a "legitimate conservative organization," Ronnie Earle has issued new subpoenas. Bunches of them.   (These official actual subpoenas will open in PDF format.)  Hey, just like DeLay, Abramoff may be conservative but he ain't legitimate.

more on the flip...

Apparently last night on Hardball, DeLay perjured himself dug himself a deeper hole. I guess all Earle had to do was watch DeLay talk to Tweety and wait for him to lie. After all, the facts of who paid for the trip were already public:

The airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 for then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was charged to an American Express card issued to Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist at the center of a federal criminal and tax probe, according to two sources who know Abramoff's credit card account number and to a copy of a travel invoice displaying that number.

DeLay's expenses during the same trip for food, phone calls and other items at a golf course hotel in Scotland were billed to a different credit card also used on the trip by a second registered Washington lobbyist, Edwin A. Buckham, according to receipts documenting that portion of the trip.

House ethics rules bar lawmakers from accepting travel and related expenses from registered lobbyists. DeLay, who is now House majority leader, has said that his expenses on this trip were paid by a nonprofit organization and that the financial arrangements for it were proper. He has also said he had no way of knowing that any lobbyist might have financially supported the trip, either directly or through reimbursements to the nonprofit organization.

In the subpoenas, Earle asks for credit card records of Abramoff and Buckham, among other things. I've not finished reading them but if I find something juicy in there, I'll update.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Really. He's making Earle's job easy. I am thoroughly enjoying this Rethug implosion.
UPDATE: He subpoenas Continental Airlines and British Airways for records relating to the Scotland golf trip and how it was paid for. He also subpoenaed Christine DeLay and former lobbyist Buckham.

•  If Mr Bush could stand in front of the world

  last night and spout what are at best total misunderstandings of fact, why not DeLay?  

  I've done nothing wrong is nowhere nearly as rotten as the assumption by Mr Bush that he is empowered by the constitution to spy on US citizens in their homes---without warrant, send troops to "democratize" the world, and ban science that helps keep us healthy.

  Poor Tom D     nasty truth hurting him   tsk tsk

  We currently have two duly elected presidents who were not allowed to take office and one sitting nonelected pResident.

  by maybeeso in michigan on Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 05:20:23 PM PDT

  •  good point

    But in this case, fortunately, someone with subpoena power was watching. We'll have to wait and see if Bush ever pays a fucking price for any wrongdoing. So far he's skated all his life. I'd like to think his luck is running out soon.  

    by rioduran on Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 05:23:57 PM PDT

  •  Remember the "Costanza" method

    
     . . . of passing a polygraph examination:  "It's not a lie if you believe it's true."

     BenGoshi
    ___________________

    by BenGoshi on Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 06:34:10 PM PDT

    •  I love it!! Wonder how far you have

      to really be from basic reality to make that really work.  ??

      by maybeeso in michigan on Thu Feb 02, 2006 at 05:45:35 AM PDT

•  You can't perjure yourself

  on Hardball.

  by Earl on Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 05:31:14 PM PDT

  •  What's the punchline?

    /snark

    by Scarce on Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 05:35:28 PM PDT

    •  But you can

      puncture your balls on a stick!

      by Earl on Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 06:47:03 PM PDT

  •  true

    but to me it sounded better than "lied like a guy".

    by rioduran on Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 05:41:55 PM PDT

    •  Huck huck n/t

      by Earl on Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 06:47:58 PM PDT

•  Please Tom DeLay - please - please

  please ..

  Don't quit.

  Hang in there until the bitter end.

  Please.

  {and your little dog, Bob Ney ,too!}

  by shpilk on Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 05:35:05 PM PDT

•  Tommy, Tommy, Tommy...

  dontcha know?  First thing you do when you find you're in a hole?  Stop digging.

  Jeeze, these guys are stupid.  I want my congressional crooks to at least have some class.

  by Marc in KS on Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 05:46:52 PM PDT

  •  I think he thought

    that was what he was getting when he took that golf trip to Scotland

    by rioduran on Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 05:56:52 PM PDT

•  Deficit reduction plan

  All indicted public officials must contribute an amount EQUAL to their legal expenses to the federal treasury if found guilty.

  With this Administration, we'd drop it a few trillion  by 2010.

  by xrepub on Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 06:06:16 PM PDT

  •  There should be a way to reclaim public property

    that was sold or given to cronies during Dumbya's reign.   This includes overcharges and other fraud by Halliburton and its subsidiaries.

    AND all the money Abramoff took from Indian tribes to use to screw them out of legal payments.

    by maybeeso in michigan on Thu Feb 02, 2006 at 05:44:23 AM PDT